SEVEN REASONS TO CATCH AFROJACK AT SMIRNOFF EXPERIENCE THIS SUNDAY

His face is on a Dutch postage stamp, he’s won a Grammy for remixing Madonna, he’s a multi-millionaire at 28. Far from being complacent or balloon-headed, Afrojack (Nick Van de Wall) is one of EDM’s hardest working party starters, a Shah Rukh Khan of the music scene if you will, who cannot imagine not working 16 hours days, well, because, it’s not really work, is it? Perseverance, humility, gratefulness are all still part of the Dutchman’s vocabulary just like his arsenal of never-ending chart-busting, arena-thrilling beats. Here are seven more reasons you should check out Afrojack this Sunday in Mumbai at the Smirnoff Experience show…

He genuinely loves his fans…

Point us to any other DJ in the EDM scene who mentions his fans as often as Afrojack and we’ll eat our hearts out. And guess what? He doesn’t sound cosmetic while he’s saying it. For instance, Afrojack is constantly on Twitter not to check out what the people he follows are saying but to see what his fans are up to. When his album was up for release last year, guess how he leaked the news to his fans, one of the first DJs to do so? Snapchat.

He grew up with music and understands how it changes lives…

Afrojack fans will be familiar with this anecdote but it bears repetition. He grew up in the tiny town of Spijkenisse (population 70,000) raised by a single mother who took him along to her work at the dance studio - she couldn’t afford the baby sitter. He dropped out of school, started DJing and one of his earliest gigs was playing to ten people. At 18, he already had chart topping tunes in Netherlands and six years later, he played to 300,000 people at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. “I’m showing other people that it’s possible to lead an insane life,” he says, in the March of the Jack documentary. Among other details, it also tells you that he’s a single father himself, and will give his daughter Vegas $5 per hour, just as he used to.

He’s a truly versatile DJ…

Run through Afrojack’s list of collaborators: From British singing royalty Sting to American bass evangelist Diplo, rapper Pitbull to songwriter Leona Lewis, hip hop legends Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa as well as David Guetta, the godfather of EDM, the producer-DJ has never shied away from experimenting with his sound, or dabbling in different genres and regularly stepping out of his comfort zone.

He’s ranked No. 8 in the world…

DJ Mag, the world’s electronic music bible, released its latest list of global DJ rankings in October and Afrojack is steaming hot at number 8. That’s no flash in the pan. He debuted at no 19 six years ago in 2010 and has rarely moved out of the top 10 since, cementing his reputation as a global entertainer. That’s not the only list he’s appeared on either. Afrojack is also a regular since 2013 on Forbes list of ‘World’s Highest Paid DJs’.

He speaks his mind…

And comes up with some truly quotable quotes. Sample these: On the hegemony of Dutch artists and DJs in EDM: “Holland is to dance music what Nashville is to country.” On the eve of his album launch in New York: “I want to make my grandma understand a drop and make club fans understand a song.” And what did he learn after its launch: “Trust your own instinct and follow your balls.”

He has one of the coolest DJ monikers…

No, he doesn’t sport an Afro. And no, Jack is not his name. Instead, his moniker is an ode the roots of house music which originated in the African-American, Latino and gay underground warehouse parties in Chicago. Here, clubbers ‘jacked’ to the music: a wavy forward-backward torso movement to the four-by-four beat. It’s little wonder, then, that like Chicago house music legend Frankie Knuckles, Afrojack would eventually like a street named after himself in the Netherlands.

He can bang out the beats as hard as he crashes his cars…

Anyone who totals a million-dollar Ferrari 458 Italia within an hour of buying it isn’t going to beat around the bush with his DJ sets, is he? Afrojack is consistently involved in all aspects of his shows, including his visual rig, focussed on giving fans the most bang for their bucks. And what of his auto obsession? In October this year, the DJ put down $2.5 million for the Bugatti Chiron, touted as the world’s fastest car (463 km/hr), due in his garage in 2016.